professional photographers, worked at 33 South Head Road, Sydney, in 1863 65. They apparently came from Dartmouth, England. A printed label on the back of an ambrotype portrait of an unidentified woman (Josef Lebovic Gallery) which states 'from Croft’s Photographic Rooms Dartmouth’ has had Dartmouth crossed out and replaced with a hand-written 'Sydney’. In Sydney the firm often used a panorama looking east down the harbour as a studio backdrop for their portraits.
A splendid composite photograph of the Caxton Volunteer Rifle Club in Sydney (Josef Lebovic Gallery), comprising ten oval portraits of the members, was formerly owned by W.J. Wilson , who sketched theatre designs in ink on the back. Other known photographs include portraits of Octavius Bayliffe Ebsworth and his wife (1864, Mitchell Library) and numerous cartes-de-visite.
The Crofts were prolific photographers, as evidenced in their announcement in the Sydney Morning Herald of 6 March 1865, selling the lease of their photographic gallery and 'over 5,000 negatives’. They were about to return to England, 'in consequence of health’. By June the gallery was occupied by Moore and Parkes , who continued to use the Crofts’ name for some time. The Crofts apparently visited New Zealand and set up a studio in Auckland before returning home.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
